Link: https://strawpoll.com/w4nWW3XDYnA

On machines where you start Steam manually in order to play a game, do you keep Steam running in the background after play session is over? Meaning if you no longer play any game for the moment, and just keep it running to be ready. Or do you close Steam, after the play session?

On any machine that I'm regularly using steam I have it open on startup and never close it. The only exception is my laptop, but usually once it's started I just leave it going until I reboot or the popups annoy me.

I suppose you don't autostart it on your Laptop, because its main purpose is not to game on it and the implication of RAM usage is high enough to concern you. I assume, right? At least it would for me, if I had a Laptop.

I only have steam on my gaming computer so yes, it just runs. Thats what the PC is for.

So basically what a Steam Machine is, just a custom build one.

I close it completely when I'm not playing a game.

Purely for the annoyance of the popups of X is playing a game or whatever. It’s also the laptop I (normally) do work on so I don’t the distraction.

I’ve never once considered the ram usage of steam. Any machine where ram is a concern is probably not a machine I’d want to play games on.

I can’t believe so many people here autorun it.

Steam is, objectively, a chonky boi. If I’m not actively using it, why would I want it slowing down what I am actually doing? What’s the upside?

And to be specific, I’m not concerned with RAM usage personally, but interrupts, CPU, networking, vram…

Oh that. Well you can adjust the notifications for every type of notification in Steam. I also disabled the notification for friends coming on or playing a game. I find it annoying too.

I can’t believe so many people here autorun it.

Me too. I'm actually a bit shocked. The reason why I started this poll is, because I recently saw lot of YouTube people saying they always run it in the background (because of the defense about Steam starting slow, versus the new Epic Games launcher). So I was curious if that is a thing most do.

Also one of the reasons I close it is, it somewhat interferes with gamepads I am using outside Steam. Just one of the reasons.

Yeah, I leave it on.

Colloquially known as a gaming computer yes lol

Also, privacy and security. It’s just good practice not to autorun anything unless you absolutely have to, especially something with as much exposed “area” as a popular client with so many features.

I recently saw lot of YouTube people saying they always run it in the background (because of the defense about Steam starting slow, versus the new Epic Games launcher).

This is a hot take, but I think the tendency to autorun Steam… familiarity?

People like Steam. It’s positive. It’s “on their side” and known, and it auto runs by default, so they aren’t particularly inclined to change that.

I could not care less about how I feel about Steam. I care about the resource utilization I measured and see with my two eyeballs, and I don’t like it one bit. Heck, I’d much rather it not run even while I’m gaming, if I can help it.

I auto start it and leave it running. I have lots of friends that will reach out on steam if we're both online to play together. If I'm always offline because steam is off, I'll miss games with friends.

I have to say finding someone calling a gaming PC a ‘custom Steam Machine’ is pretty funny. Finding someone who isn’t familiar with making a gaming PC (been a thing for at least 20 years) but is familiar with Steam Machines, originally announced 13 years ago but only really becoming a thing now.

Takes all sorts of people haha

I manually start it when I want to play something.

I shut down the computer when I'm done for a while. Like before bed, or if I'm leaving the house.

But if I play a game and then spend some time on the computer doing something else, I don't explicitly close steam.

Whats so funny about it? If you have a PC and run Steam directly, even if its not SteamOS, it acts like a Steam Machine. That's why I said "So basically". I am also familiar with the original Steam Machines, but they were much different than what we have today. Why is it a thing now, and wasn't a thing back then? Because it wasn't ready back then. How many Linux only games did we have on Steam? There wasn't a builtin Proton, and also Steam and the operating system itself wasn't ready. Valve also didn't make their own handheld and left the production to third parties, who made expensive PC hardware. There was no reason to buy them.

I mostly use my Steam Controller to control my PC and the Steam keyboard is the best to use with the two touchpads.

That's actually a good point. This is basically my biggest problem with the controller (not able to use it for everything, because i love it, and because I don't run Steam all the time).

For me gaming is the only thing my computer does where the performance actually matters, in pretty much all other things I use it for the performance impact is imperceptible. The only time I might close it is if I was trying to run some benchmark or something.

If you have a PC and run Steam directly, even if its not SteamOS, it acts like a Steam Machine.

If someone has a phone with Facebook on it, is it a Facebook phone?

My PC also has Firefox on it. Is it a Firefox Machine? But it also has Steam. Is it a Steamfox Machine? But what about all of the other applications? The name might get a bit unruly.

You’ve got a bright future ahead of you, kid. Maybe ask an elder to pull out an old PC to muck around with, they’re actually very versatile pieces of hardware. Can code on them and everything.

I don't like the overhead games either, TBH. This is why I try to buy GoG absolutely wherever I can; no launcher, no DRM, no overhead.

Unfortunately, a lot of games aren't on GoG, or are even Steam-exclusive now...

You don't have to use Steam. If it wasn't for the keyboard I might not have bothered with it.

I mean like umm my PC is a steam machine so like. Generally always running even in desktop mode. It never really takes that much resources for things as tr heaviest things I do is gaming on steam anyways.

I am halfway in between manually turn it on and close after finishing and just leaving it on after I finish. Half of the time I flip-flop on doing one way or the other.

Wait, the poll doesn't work? Weird.

I keep it on all the time even though I barely play games because I only have a 100/30 connection available so on the rare weekend occasion that my friends have time to play games, I don't have to boot it up only to see that the game we want to play of course has a 5GB update that will take me a half hour to download.

Forget about Squad where every file has to be reworked for a 10Mb update so it will max out an SSD for 20 minutes if it gets any hint of an update...

Of course not. Why would I do that?

My PC also has Firefox on it. Is it a Firefox Machine? But it also has Steam. Is it a Steamfox Machine?

Richard Stallman, is that you?

Your future is bright, because you don't understand what the words "acts like a" and "basically" mean. Hopefully a surgery can help you.

I'm not sure what you mean. If Steam does not run in the background, then Steam Controller does not work like a normal controller. There are workarounds with external drivers, which I don't want to use. And some applications can add support on their own with SDL3 library builtin. But we are not there yet, for universal replacement.

Then the question doesn't apply to your use case. This poll is aimed at those who have to install and start Steam or set it up to autostart themselves.

That's a tricky one to answer then. If I was in between, I probably wouldn't know what to select either. Maybe what you want it to in future?

That's modern gaming in 2026 for you. About the poll, I don't know why it does not work for you. VPN users are not blocked at all this time (in previous polls I did it was blocked). Otherwise maybe some browser extensions might block something?

If I’m not actively using it, why would I want it slowing down what I am actually doing?

So my friends can see that I'm online and invite me.
Also updating my games in the background.

And my PC is powerful enough that I don't notice any kind of slowdown from Steam running in the background anyways.

Social? The fuck kinda gamers are these? 😜

I don't autostart it, but when I do use it, I keep it running until I turn off my computer. I don't notice any slowdowns, so it's not an issue.

I don't autostart it, but yeah, like most programs, I just leave it running once it is. Not like it makes any performance difference. Firefox chews memory WAY more readily than Steam does.

Not started on boot, but once I fire up steam, it stays running unless I start up Star Citizen. I need all the help I can get with that mess.

why would I want it slowing down

It doesn't. It did when I was using a 10 year old non-gaming laptop, yeah. On my main PC it's not noticeable at all.

I mean that's nice, none of it really appeals to me, but it doesn't really seem relevant to the question which specifically mentioned on devices where you manually start Steam.

I'm sorry did you not read my comment. The question was for people who manually start their Steam do you leave it on. You're talking about Auto starting. You don't get how it's not relevant? Also what is them being valid have to do with anything? I said that's nice but they don't appeal to me. I didn't say they weren't valid. You didn't read my comment and you didn't read the op before responding to anything it seems like.

I use my PC pretty exclusively for gaming so I actually prefer it to autorun. I don't notice any difference in performance with it off honestly.

Cool beans dude. I don't care. Never ever doing it.

What the fuck are you even talking about? Are you a bot? There's no way you keep missing this. You're the one that brought up auto start. I never did. Because the question specifically asked if you don't use auto start. So when you brought up auto start I told you it wasn't relevant . What's not connecting here?